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Twice as nice!
By Edison Jefford
Linden’s Retrieve Raiders and Georgetown’s Colts United will return to the Final of the Guyana 
Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) National Basketball Championships: Mackeson’s Road to Mecca III for the second time in three years.
Contrary to what was reported in Tuesday’s edition of Kaieteur Sport, Raiders played in the final of the first Road to Mecca in 2014, losing to Georgetown’s Dyna’s Ravens. I had said that this is the first trip to the Final for the Linden-based team when in fact it would be its second. With that aside, Raiders is proving its worth as predicted.
In our pre-tournament analysis, I had indicated that Raiders is the one team that could upset what was certainly a well-stacked applecart. This is what was written weeks ago: “Retrieve Raiders is the one team from Linden that could upset the applecart more than any other… given their depth at the first division level and performance against credible oppositions”.
And as fate would have it, our prediction was accurate; Raiders upset 2015 Champs, Pacesetters to advance to their second national final, hoping to go one better than two years ago, which gives Linden a chance at owning its first national basketball title.
Raiders’ opposition, Colts United also came up empty-handed from the final last year. The third edition of the National Championship Game Saturday night at The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall at 7pm guarantees the crowning of a new National Champion.
Raiders have a formidable team; their obvious strength is height, wingspan and reach with Jason Alonzo, Marvin Hartman, Omally Sampson, Dwayne Roberts and Neil Marks, combining for the average height of about 6’4″ in the paint. Raiders’ ‘bigs’ out-played Pacesetters in their semifinal match-up, which made it clear that the team understand its strength.
Raiders ex-factor: point guard, Keon Cameron 11 points and eight steals in his last game.
Raiders know that overcoming the height hurdle is always problematic for local ‘ballers’, even at an international level. Colts is diametrically opposed; Colts rely heavily on its backcourt to get in the desired result. Its backcourt is perhaps the best in Guyana.
National point guard, Dave Causway leads an efficient backcourt that includes Shelroy Thomas, Kurt English and the sensational new addition, who has been the difference-maker for them from Kwakwani, swingman, 16-year-old, Stanton Rose.
Colts ex-factors: centre Shane Webster and forward Onicko Fraser.
The Final of the 2016 National Basketball Championships is therefore a match-up between Colts efficient backcourt and Raiders formidable frontcourt. Hopefully, the result is twice as nice given that both teams will be playing in their second national final.
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